Outrage after Facebook pictures show man letting baby swim in crocodile-infested river.

                                                       A picture of a nine-month-old baby splashing in a crocodile-infested river after being put there by his mother's partner has sparked outrage across Australia.

Baby Dexter was too young to know that the waters hid lurking crocodiles which have a reputation for moving in silently on their prey - and striking in a flash.

And while the picture, posted on Facebook, has outraged some people who have described allowing the baby to play there as being irresponsible, Dexter's mother, Haley Mackenzie, came out on the defensive.

                                            'I know how the photo looks,' she said. 'A couple of people have told me that looked a bit dangerous.'

She added, however that 'at the time the river was completely down, he's at the edge of the water and there were heaps of people around him.'  The photo was taken at Cahills Crossing, on the East Alligator River, some 150 miles east of Darwin.   Ms Mackenzie said she had complete trust in her partner, who had taken Dexter with him when he joined a group of friends on a fishing expedition in the river.

Margot Marshall, from Parks Australia, which manages Cahills Crossing, told the Northern Territory News that there were visible warnings advising people not to swim.

'The warnings are also clear about where people should fish if they choose to,' she said.

Cahills Crossing is notorious for its large number of crocodiles, where 'salties' are known to measure up to 18ft long

                                              In 1987, storeman Kerry McLoughlin, from the small community of Jabiru, was killed by a huge crocodile after he was knocked into the river by the incoming tide.

A woman who knows the area said she was disturbed when she saw the photo of Dexter playing in the water because she knows of the large number of crocodiles that live there.

'You should never put a baby into those waters,' she said.

'As a kid I'd walk down the edge of the river and be told off.' Australians writing to the Northern Territory News expressed their horror at the photo.

'Look at the water depth sign and the current running past it,' wrote one. 'A croc could sneak down on the current and whamo, the child is gone in a flash.' 

Another writer wrote cynically: 'Oh look at little Dexter having fun! Chomp, Oh look, there goes little Dexter in the jaws of a croc...the kid has no say in being used as croc bait. Someone and give the parent..a punch in the head. Idiot, idiot, idiot.'

posted by Emanto Ngaloru  Dec 23, 2013.